Kaukonde files $100k lawsuit against Zimpapers

By The Standard | Aug. 9, 2017 | 2 Min read

Former Zanu PF Mashonaland East provincial chairperson, Ray Joseph Kaukonde, has filed a $100 000 lawsuit against Zimbabwe Newspapers (Zimpapers), after one of the stable’s titles, The Sunday Mail, published a story insinuating that he forged his O Level certificate.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Through his lawyers, Warara and Associates, Kaukonde filed the litigation on August 3, 2017, citing Zimpapers and Sunday Mail investigations editor, Brian Chitemba, as respondents.

Kaukonde said sometime in November 2014, the newspaper ran an article titled Ray Kaukonde faked O Level certificate.

“The article stated that the plaintiff (Kaukonde) had forged his educational qualifications to build his political and business career using an O Level certificate belonging to Ray Michael Chimbganda. It further stated that the plaintiff had bribed the family members not to expose this scandal. The concerned article stated that Ray Michael refused to discuss anything in relation to the plaintiff,” Kaukonde said in his declaration.

“The plaintiff denies the allegations of being involved in the forging of the O Level certificate as claimed by the second defendant’s (Chitemba) sources of information and states that the allegations are not correct.”

The former Mashonaland East governor added that the words in the alleged article were wrongful and defamatory as they portrayed him as dishonest.

“The second defendant failed even to solicit a simple comment from the plaintiff. As a result of the defamatory publication, the plaintiff has suffered irreparable injury and this has diminished the plaintiff’s esteem or standing in the eyes of ordinary members of the general public as this has cast aspersions on his character. This has resulted in the plaintiff being ridiculed as a leader who faked O Level certificate,” he said.